Saturday, December 07, 2013

Storyteller

All of us know at least one such person who while narrating an incident talks about every single thing related to it. And makes even the most interesting episode dragging and boring. The person is usually in 'avoid as much as possible' list. I was one such kid. When I used to narrate something, I would talk about everything useless too. I preferred to provide the entire information no matter how redundant it was. People started avoiding asking questions to me and school started giving me prizes for my achievements. Not all was lost.

This reaction had its positive as well as negative effects. Negative effect was that by the time I became a bit sensible, I had become introvert. I rarely spoke with anyone, even at school. I went to school, attended tuitions, came home and shut myself in my room. I did nothing productive, made no new friends. I got along better with people who were older than me by at least 5 years. I started loathing the place I was living in. I wanted to move out asap, to a different city so that nobody from that circle could follow me. And I could start afresh. From a boring school girl to someone everyone wants to be friends with.

I shifted to Bombay. I was again very much introvert, conscious and hesitant initially. My wardrobe consisted of old fashioned clothes that nobody wore here. My English was not as fluent, as in my town, we communicated in Gujarati and at times Hindi. I was a hostelite, and most of the college people around me belonged to wealthy families. They travelled in their cars, ate in fancy restaurants, partied in posh pubs and lounges where if I go with them once, my half monthly pocket money would be gone. I could again see myself in the same situation. I was on the verge of going back to my old self.

But I decided to change this. I learnt to speak in fluent English. Since I knew the language well and grammar and vocabulary base was pretty strong, all I needed was a bit of practice and confidence. I started writing dramas for college, started a site on tripod to write down my thoughts which I got to know much later that it was nothing but blogging. My blog was about incidences. I wrote anecdotes, read them myself, started filtering information and I was ready. Ready to face the world with my new personality. The same stories for which I was made fun of became the source of entertainment for people. I now knew exactly what information to share and what to discard, where to change the pitch and where to take a pause. I was occasionally funny too, but mostly entertaining. I made friends, lots of them, who are still in touch with me.

Thus was born a storyteller. Who learnt the tricks of the trade hard way. Who later on told people that it's okay to crib, rant and tell stories. But make sure even the most boring things can be told in the most interesting manner. And it was not difficult. If a small town nobody could do it, anyone else could.

Now my life is full of stories. I can create a story even from a very mundane situation. It comes naturally to me. I can talk to anyone about anything for any duration. And I am mostly interesting. And funny too if I like you. This helps me in teaching too. Students think that I am a very good teacher and they look forward to my lectures. Stories help. Always. Learn to be an interesting storyteller. It can take you places. It can save you from awkward situations and silences. And you are loved by everyone.

Sadly, this also gets you a lot of attention. But the best part is, you can go back to being the boring storyteller. That's the real you. And that's what you will always remain at heart. A boring storyteller who is good at fooling people.